The Most Common Causes of a Slow Metabolism

Some people can eat whatever they want and they won’t gain fat while others can just take a look at fast food or sweets and they gain pounds. This is due to a particular part of the genetics of humans, but also due to a “broken” metabolism. Those of you who can eat whatever they want usually have good genes and an extremely well-functioning metabolism. This ensures among other things that nutrients are processed better and faster.

But it is also up to each one of us, to take care of our metabolism, so it can work properly. Relevant factors include water absorption, protein and fat intake, and enough sleep.

Diets have great influence on the metabolism. Thus, an intense diet (great calorie deficit) performed for very long periods of time, slows down your metabolism. So even if relatively small amounts of energy is supplied to the body (in terms of body type, size and weight), a damaged metabolism ensures that the goal of body weight reduction can not be achieved. The body goes into energy preservation mode as a self protection measure. This reaction goes back to the time when food was not in abundance around us.

Some theories suggest also that it is always difficult to lose weight after one gains a significant amount of weight. When a drastic calorie deficit is applied for longer time, the organism goes into energy preservation mode and it’s harder to lose weight.

Now of course some will say that professionals always rely on drastic diets when they do a bulk phase and then decrease their weight radically again. That certainly may be true. The difference, however, is that professionals often use enhancement drugs (eg steroids, doping agents) that keep the thyroid gland producing and hormone levels high even while dieting, thus making the fat loss process possible. So do not be fooled by the standards, they are definitely not equal for all.

Slow metabolism can be associated with bad diet unmistakeable, but sometimes other things also play a role in how fast your metabolism is. Since you already know you have a slow metabolism, you next need to find out why is it that way. Is it something you do or just your genetics ?

Here are some common causes for a slow metabolism.

1. Very Low ammount of nutrients

A low calorie diet, which is carried out over a long period will considerably slow down the metabolism. As already mentioned, this takes place as a protective reaction of the body. Usually during a very low calorie diet, the hands and feet become cold as a result of the very low energy supply. The body draws all its blood to the body where is needed the most.

A big mistake by athletes that want to reach their final goal quickly, is starting a too intense diet right away. The body just does not have the time to get used to the drastically reduced calorie intake, and therefore a rapid metabolism shutdown begins.

This is why you never start with drastic changes in your diet. But rather decrease your calories by 10-15% of your total. That’s about 300-500 calories per day. After about 2-3 weeks see how your body reacts and cut another 300-500 calories. Some experts suggest taking small diet breaks that last a few days, so you can allow the hormone called leptin to increase and bring your metabolism back on track. This is also how intermittent fasting works.